AnyPlace: Automatic Gaze Alignment of the Teleported Avatar for MR Collaborative Environments

Abstract

Tele-conference systems are widely used as a form of communication media between remote sites. In order to overcome the limitations of video-based tele-conference systems with the continued technological innovations in mixed reality (MR), the use of a three-dimensional teleported avatar, in which a remote participant is teleported into a local environment, would be an effective future tele-conference system that would allow natural movement and interaction in the same location. However, technical difficulties must be resolved to enable control of the teleported avatar adapted to the environmental differences of the remote location and the user’s situation. This paper presents a novel method to adjust automatic gaze alignment of the teleported avatar with matching in the local site for MR collaborative environments. We ran comparative validation experiments to measure spatial accuracy of the gaze and evaluate the user’s communication efficiency using our method. In a quantitative experiment, the degree of gaze matching error in various environments was found to form a mirror-symmetrical U-shape, and the necessity of gaze matching gain was also recognized. Additionally, our experimental study showed that participants felt a greater co-presence during communication than in an idle situation without conversation.

Exploring the Effect of Virtual Environments on Passive Haptic Perception

“…According to the results in Figures 7 and 8, the number of people and the degree of difference in the various orientation steps were significantly large. Furthermore, depending on the angle, when rotational gain was used, we found that we could properly adjust the angle of the virtual object to the user [25,26]. In the scale factor, participants in the experiment tended to underestimate the size of the virtual object when it was smaller than the actual object.…”

Current Research in Future Information and Communication Engineering 2022

“…From the experiments, it was shown that the participants felt the same within a certain range, which seems to support the "minimum cue" theory in providing sufficient sensory stimulation. The second paper, authored by Chung et al [11], presented a novel method to adjust the automatic gaze alignment of the teleported avatar to match the local site for mixed reality (MR) collaborative environments. Comparative validation experiments to measure the spatial accuracy of the gaze and evaluate the user's communication efficiency using the method were performed.…”

The experience of a tele-operated avatar being touched increases operator’s sense of discomfort

“… Zhang, Hansen & Minakata (2019) proposed a mobile telepresence robot that can be controlled by the eye-gaze movements of people with motor disabilities. Other studies of avatar systems have focused on the perceptions of interacting partners at remote locations ( Tanaka et al, 2016 ; Tanaka et al, 2019 ; Baba et al, 2021 ; Ijuin et al, 2021 ; Chung & Jo, 2022 ; Pakanen et al, 2022 ; Song et al, 2022 ). Chung & Jo (2022) proposed a method that aligns the gaze directions of a virtual avatar with those of a person at a remote location.…”

“…Other studies of avatar systems have focused on the perceptions of interacting partners at remote locations ( Tanaka et al, 2016 ; Tanaka et al, 2019 ; Baba et al, 2021 ; Ijuin et al, 2021 ; Chung & Jo, 2022 ; Pakanen et al, 2022 ; Song et al, 2022 ). Chung & Jo (2022) proposed a method that aligns the gaze directions of a virtual avatar with those of a person at a remote location. Their proposed method improved the co-presence perceptions of people at remote locations with an avatar.…”